Team Experience is sharing FYCs as the Television Academy votes on Emmy nominations (voting closes on June 24th). Here's J.B...
Last year's winner Claire Foy can't repeat (as Emmy likes to do) because she didn't have a TV show this year.I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Emmy category of Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. As someone who worships at the altar of dramatic actresses, it’s my favorite category, and therefore necessarily the one that causes me the greatest anguish. Sometimes, this category shocks and delights (as it did in 2014, when Lizzy Caplan was nominated for her wonderful work on Masters of Sex, or 2016, when Tatianna Maslany took home the trophy for her dynamic performance in Orphan Black). But more often, as of late, anyway, I’ve been left wounded by egregious snubs and unwelcome surprises on nomination morning and Emmy night.
For example, I like Claire Danes, but did she really need a SECOND Emmy for her performance on Homeland, at the expense of Elisabeth Moss, who somehow never won for her iconic role on Mad Men? If Moss had won for Mad Men perhaps voters could have skipped her in turn for Claire Foy in The Crown, thus clearing the way for Keri Russell in 2018, whose turn as Elizabeth Jennings in The Americans is maybe the greatest dramatic performance of the decade. Keri’s loss, in particular, I still haven’t fully recovered from.
So, to any Emmy voters out there who have realized the error of their ways and are looking to make amend: You CAN’T! You’ve made bad choices, the consequences of which we all will have to live with! Know that. BUT, if you are looking to get on the right side of history this year, start by considering the following four names on your ballot for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series...
Christine Baranski, The Good Fight
Christine is hardly under-recognized by the Television Academy, but she remains such a powerful, elegant and engaging screen presence, and is doing some of the very best work of her career on The Good Fight. She deserves to be validated, for the first time, as the leading lady she has proven herself to be.
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Deuce
Of the women on this list, Maggie is who I would like to stump hardest for. She is, sincerely, one of the best, most versatile actresses working today, and been criminally under-awarded for it. The Deuce has gotten a bit of a bad rep, I suspect because of headliner James Franco’s reported #MeToo misconduct, and it’s a shame, because it is actually one of the better dramas to have to premiered in the last few years, and features a tremendously talented, diverse ensemble (including many women of color) and some very smart and sophisticated storytelling. And at the center of it all is Candy, the former prostitute and now auteur porn director played by Gyllenhaal. Her performance is brimming with heart, skill, honesty and intelligence. Like Robin Wright on House of Cards, she has, through the power of her performance, forced her way to the center of the narrative, where she belongs. It’s no easy feat. And it shouldn’t go unnoticed.
Toni Collette, Wanderlust
Toni is one of those rare performers who not only is never bad, but is almost always abnormally interesting. She goes to unexpected places as an actress, and imbues her characters, magically, with a dual sense of mystery and relatability. They are equally flawed and endearing, selfish and loving. Wanderlust is no exception. She brightens this wonderful show with that je ne sais quoi-spark of kookiness and gravitas that makes her so remarkable as an actress, and so special. Her performance is raw and real. You want to hug her. You want to slap her. It’s humanity, messy and pretty and everything in between, captured on film. This is a masterclass in acting, and utterly-Emmy worthy.
Jodie Comer, Killing Eve
An absolute dynamo of an actress who brings a tremendous amount of charm and nuance to a very complicated role, and over two seasons of Killing Eve, has not made one bad choice or committed a single false moment to screen. If her work on this show is any indication, she could very well be the next Meryl Streep, so in true Meryl-fashion, we had better start showering her with awards. Not just because she happens to be on a hit show or because she's hitched her wagon to the stars of Sandra Oh and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, but because she is, herself, a tremendously skilled performer— sharp and evocative and engrossing— and she deserves them.
It would be foolish to hope that all four of these ladies will make the cut this year, given the stiff competition from bigger names and bigger shows. But perhaps one of them? Comer or Baranski could happen and I would love nothing more than to wake up on nominations morning to see Gyllenhaal and Collette’s names (or, for that matter, any number of other unexpected but welcome ones—Elizabeth Olsen! Suranne Jones! Ruth Negga! Caitriona Balfe!) included as well. It’s high time Emmy voters start mixing it up in this category and make riskier choices.
Who are you rooting for in this category?